Catheterization and interventional procedures, such as angioplasty and stenting, generally are performed by inserting a hollow needle through a patient's skin and muscle tissue into the vascular system. This creates a puncture wound in a blood vessel, frequently the femoral artery, which, once the interventional procedure has been completed, needs to be closed or sealed in a suitable manner.
Procedures and devices have been proposed for accomplishing such closure which involve the use of an introducer sheath that is placed in the tract of the puncture wound following which a closure delivering device is introduced through the introducer sheath to deploy a sealing element within the tract. An indicator wire may be used to locate the edge of the tract. After the closure delivering device deploys the sealing element, the indicator wire and the device are retracted. Examples of such procedures and devices are disclosed in application Ser. No. 10/687,848, filed Oct. 17, 2003 and Ser. No. 10/850,795 filed May 21, 2004. In these procedures and devices, it would be desirable to exploit features of the patient's anatomy to optimize sealing of the puncture wound.